


pixel baby

by ggemini



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: M/M, Video Game AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-25
Updated: 2019-08-25
Packaged: 2020-09-26 09:46:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20387701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ggemini/pseuds/ggemini
Summary: saint collapse © ttaurus entertainment 2019[TOUCH SCREEN TO START]





	pixel baby

**Author's Note:**

> got the idea for this while i was trying to beat that mf dialga in pokemon mystery dungeon  
warnings: semi graphic depictions of violence, mc death (kinda), cursing, shmexy times, all that jazz

_ name: yangyang _

_ level: 67 _

_ play time: 23:32:15 _

_ ( _ ** _continue_ ** _ ) ( delete save data ) _

yangyang’s cheeks are glowing. three hundred stairs is a lot to climb in a shiny black latex suit that won’t peel off his skin afterwards. he really tries though, he does, he plucks at it until his fingertips hurt and donghyuck's getting impatient.

he's tanned and a bit burnt on the tip of his nose even though this world doesn't even have a sun, donghyuck. he aims an arrow at yangyang's head, smack on his left eye, and booms, "who are you and what do you want?" as if he doesn't already know.

"i need to get to the portal to the world of light," yangyang replies. for some reason they're programmed to shout even in this mortal silence, with their voices falling over the edges of the stone plain.

donghyuck's so obviously sick of the repliques, the string of his bow pushes his mouth into a sloppy, open-mothed pout. "boss said i can't let anyone go near it."

"then i'll just have to go through you!" yangyang concludes, not at all embarrassed and red-eared like he was the first fifteen times. donghyuck doesn't hide a grin behind his hand anymore either, now he's just bored. his smile was so nice though.

life bars hang above their heads like guillotine blades. donghyuck's also wearing a skin-tight suit but his is silver, red stripes around his upper thighs and biceps. light glides over his abdomen like bolts of lightning when he moves.

yangyang's life bar's blinking red and he lets it. donghyuck cranes his neck to look at it. it's not in the script but he says it anyway, so quiet it's just air he moulds into gentle words: i hate hurting you, so much - and then his short sword's sticking out of yangyang's stomach; it's just as much yangyang's fault as it is donghyuck's.

/

park jisung skips his last class of the day to go buy _ saint collapse _with money his grandma sent him clipped to a birthday card three months before his actual birthday. the game's sold so poorly the cases are pasted full of discount stickers. the cashier straightens his bills with a sigh.

jisung jams the chip into his console, click snap. he spends a good while on the character choice screen, flipping through the row of serious-looking young men and women, until he decides to do eeny meeny miny moe. he squeezes his eyes shut and chants.

the cursor lands on the average-height guy with a crappy chinese accent and upturned corners on his mouth. while jisung's wondering if naming him mayonnaise is too immature, soon-to-be yangyang's thinking this kid's really picking me over mr abs-and-dimples three arrow pushes to the left? but jisung scrutinises him and is really pretty okay with his choice.

/

jaemin's arm dangles over the armrest of a black loveseat. "you could've at least had a boner for the final boss," he says, the tips of his fingers grazing the floor, "instead of some lame spawn dude on top of a tall tower."

"he's not lame," yangyang says. 

"yeah, okay," jaemin says. he doesn't care.

jisung's turned the console off. everyone's sleeping or staring at walls or screwing. the game developers didn't give them much else to do, not even tv.

donghyuck's probably sitting on his smooth black marble plateau, nothing but a ring of pillars and a humongous statue of a dog to shield him from the din of emptiness. yangyang wants to go see him but doesn't have the guts, he's scared that jaemin'll laugh at him and move on to some other unbeneficial friendship. he's scared of donghyuck.

/

yangyang opens his eyes and he's in his bed again, his stomach's completely ungrazed. he can turn back time, see, and everything's fine. donghyuck fails to leave a mark. jisung's turned the game off in frustration.

and this is so embarrassing but yangyang keeps abusing that power, dying on purpose because winning would mean donghyuck would die in his stead, irreversibly. at his glowing sword, heaving, oozing blood. yangyang doesn't want that.

yangyang gets up. he makes himself dark, dark coffee. there's really nothing white in this world, except maybe their teeth and the whites of their eyes. 

he leaves to go find jaemin. the sky looms over the black skyscrapers. halfway there there's a flash of silver, donghyuck.

"yangyang," donghyuck says with a smile.

yangyang blinks. "what are you doing here?"

donghyuck snorts. he looks away. "stretching my legs, i guess." he's still looking somewhere to the left. "i come down pretty often, you know."

"i haven't seen you," yangyang replies. "i only see you up on top of the tower."

donghyuck turns his gaze back to yangyang. he smiles again, this time he even chuckles, and says, "so, pretty often because you keep ko'ing. what's that all about anyway? does your player have a tick or something?"

yangyang grins back. his insides are going haywire though; (lvsck > _its_all_on_purpose_!_ %d#h% (deathcount [23])) "he's just really shit."

"huh," donghyuck says.

and there's some glitch, a little opening for courage somewhere between yangyang's second and third rib. "would you like to come over to mine?" he asks.

donghyuck looks at him for a while before he says, "yeah? okay."

jaemin can wait, it's not like any of them have anything better to do. donghyuck's half a step behind yangyang the whole way, looking up towards the tops of the skyscrapers. the slope of his nose is so nice.

donghyuck sits down on yangyang's bed. he looks misplaced, a villain in the hero’s room, suit taut around his thighs. silver hair and silver eyelashes.

the first time they met was ages ago in the plotline, when yangyang was level ten or somewhere around it. he had a terrible, rickety sword that always gave him chafes so he wore bandages around his palms. donghyuck was hovering behind the main boss’s right hand man, youngho, tall but friendly-looking. design flaws.

donghyuck had one line, something like one day we will possess all the light in the world! his ears were red when he hollered it out and the corner of youngho’s mouth twitched. jisung was scrolling through the dialogue with ridiculous speed, yangyang barely had time to acknowledge donghyuck as anything but a pretty prop.

“what do you think it’s like, out there?” donghyuck voices out.

yangyang hums. he sits next to donghyuck. “boring enough for him to try to beat you, like, thirty times.”

donghyuck breaks out into a smile. kindly, he pretends he didn’t notice yangyang grabbing his hand over the duvet. their cheeks are a bit red. yangyang thinks he’s going to cough up his heart and doesn’t go any further.

/

this time, yangyang doesn’t manage to position himself in the way of donghyuck’s arrow or blade enough times to drain out his life bar. jisung’s got good enough to predict yangyang’s tricks, maneuver around them - donghyuck looks down at his abdomen, eyes wide. he turns his gaze up to yangyang. he lets out a sharp pant but doesn’t look surprised, just like he’s dying a predicted death.

donghyuck hits the ground without a sound. his body, silver limbs splayed, blinks in and out of existence twice before he’s gone for good. yangyang sheaths his sword like he didn’t just pull it out of the yielding flesh of a boy he was damn near in love with. who fell with a quiet sigh but no blood.

jisung’s thumb on the forward button pushes him to the portal. he’s trembling, almost spasming. killing anyone is unpleasant but this hurts like hell on earth, he can’t breathe.

_ step into the portal? _

_ ( _ ** _yes_ ** _ ) ( no ) _

yangyang falls through the portal, spinning around. his hair’s in his eyes but that doesn’t save him from the streaks of light increasing the closer he gets to the other side. gold and silver spiralling around him.

then, he’s spat out onto tree roots. it’s a miracle he doesn’t break bones. there’s so much light he can’t open his eyes for a little while. tears spring up in his eyes. he killed donghyuck.

/

donghyuck spends his nights cradling a little bunny-shaped light in his arms, a pity gift one of the game developers snuck in for him. she was scared of the dark as a kid and still sometimes feels for the hamsterz she left behind ten years ago. at least she’ll have saved one poor video game boy.

until yangyang’s cleared enough of the storyline and he has to take position on top of the tower, donghyuck doesn’t need to understand why the reason he joined the villain organisation is listed as terrified of the dark. he sits in the tall grass of the light side, the white marble steps up to the castle they took over. the sky’s wide and blue.

youngho gathers donghyuck into his arms before he has to go guard the portal. he runs his hand through donghyuck’s hair at the back of his head in a way that makes a shiver run down his spine and tells him, “i love you, kid.” it’s because donghyuck won’t come back, and maybe because he does love him.

for a long time, donghyuck misses youngho. youngho’s hands on his waist, holding him flush against himself. light.

somewhere along the way, it changes to yangyang. donghyuck lies between the dog statue’s paws and thinks about the squeak of yangyang’s suit when he’s tugged around by the clumsy player, the almost relieved look in his eyes when his life bar runs out. it might be that he’s all donghyuck’s got to distract himself from how scared and lonely he is, donghyuck isn’t sure.

donghyuck’s aware that every time yangyang shows up he takes a step closer to disappearing. he was never destined for anything else but the more yangyang loses against him, the easier it is to pretend otherwise. to hope otherwise.

eventually, it happens. yangyang’s face is blank but his hands are shaking. donghyuck’s looking up to the sky, thinking, it’s a pity he couldn’t keep yangyang away from youngho for a little longer - all to himself.

/

jisung’s sister’s hand swipes over the console’s side during a scuffle with him. she turns it off by accident and jisung’s room goes quiet. she pulls her skirt back down. jisung doesn’t remember if he saved the game.

jisung shoves his sister out and turns the game back on. he waits for it to load, tense all over. he just defeated donghyuck, god please no.

yangyang’s back in his room. jisung screams and slams the console shut.

/

the suit sticks even harder to yangyang’s skin after he’s run all the way up to the top of the tower. he has to settle for turning donghyuck around and pushing against his ass. he can feel the warmth of donghyuck’s body through the latex, in a distant sort of way.

when yangyang got to the top, donghyuck was sitting in the middle of the plateau, staring at his hands. yangyang ran to him and crouched down. “can i?” he panted out, already cradling donghyuck’s face in his hands.

donghyuck looked at him and nodded. yangyang kissed his bottom lip, then his whole mouth, their noses rubbing together. yangyang was still out of breath. it was kind of disgusting. but donghyuck didn’t point it out, instead opened his mouth for yangyang to lick into.

the appropriate thing, yangyang guesses, would’ve been to talk about it. not to rut against each other under the dog statue’s belly until their suits are sticky inside and they’re hiding their faces against each other’s necks in embarrassment.

words seem awfully insignificant, though. they’ve been reminded that they’re closer to losing each other than anything else in the world. it’s animal instinct. yangyang thinks about the shape of donghyuck’s mouth when he pulled out the sword, even when donghyuck’s right there. it’s going to happen again.

/

jisung picks up the console for the first time in two weeks. at first he was mad about having to beat the pesky mid level boss again, then he forgot it under a pile of textbooks.

his sister insists on watching over his shoulder. she's got a new perfume on, her first adult one. she's sorry about what happened but not much.

jisung feels tired, for some reason. he wipes at the screen over yangyang's neck. there's a purple little spot. a glitch?

she sighs. jisung's neck is sensitive so he swings his elbow in her direction. she yelps and falls on her back, it's mainly theatrics.

"are you going to actually do something at some point?" jisung's sister asks, back to peering at the screen. yangyang's running around in a circle in the weapon shop. jisung scoffs and sets off for the tower.

/

donghyuck can't keep himself from smiling a little when yangyang hollers out his repliques. he's being silly, making fun of the lines. the script writer of the game wasn't awfully talented, it's true.

pulling back the bowstring, arm straining a tiny bit, donghyuck wonders if he's as in love with yangyang as yangyang tells him he is with donghyuck. he always says it in a backwards manner, something like from all the people who've killed me you're my favourite, donghyuck. like fuck, donghyuck, put it in already.

their swords clang together and hit skin with quiet shwips. it hurts for a second and leaves no trace. donghyuck's boots skid on the black marble.

donghyuck's chest heaves and he finishes yangyang off with only a bit of red left in his own life bar. he looks up at it, terrified.

yangyang leans close to whisper, "it's going to be okay," pretending to sway back and forth before he falls. he disappears, leaving donghyuck alone in the dark. it must be nice to know you'll never go for good.

/

yangyang gets back up to the top. he's got plenty of stuff to tell donghyuck itching at his tongue but donghyuck's crying into the crook of his elbow. something's shining light in his lap, casting shadows on the ground.

"what's the matter?" yangyang asks, bending down to tuck a curl of hair behind donghyuck's ear.

donghyuck sniffs. he drops his hands down onto his lap, to stroke the bunny light's back, its hard plastic ears. yangyang almost feels like he doesn't have the right to be looking.

"i just want to get away from here," donghyuck finally says. the light sticks to the wet patches on his cheeks.

there's no need to say it because they both know: no matter how far they'd run, the game would warp them back to where they were, without fail. they'd swing their swords and one of them would drop. it's the infernal cycle.

yangyang's crying too and donghyuck reaches up to wipe at his cheeks despite it all. it's a ruthless world, the digital one.

///

_ which way would you like to take? _

_ ( [dark](http://donghyuck.simplesite.com/443312559) )_ _( [light](http://donghyuck.simplesite.com/443312562) ) _

**Author's Note:**

> if u were wondering what kind of moron would even keep trying after having lost that many times, i am that moron
> 
> [twt](https://twitter.com/yeshyuck?s=09)  
[cc](https://curiouscat.me/jeyes)


End file.
